First Look: ‘Zero Dark Thirty,’ The Movie That Kills Osama Bin Laden

Billions of dollars, a top secret task force, and a dead al-Qaeda leader…

Zero Dark Thirty is the latest project from heavy-hitting Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow. The film presents the raid that resulted in Osama Bin Laden’s death.

Entertainment Weekly’s Inside Movies has released the first look at the film.

Based on the brief trailer, the film seems to take the intensity that Bigelow brought to Hurt Locker and adds to it a lot more action and politics.

For starters, the theme of covering your trail plays an important role in the tease. Graphic work makes it look like a Sharpie pen is crossing things out as we watch. Text is concealed and revealed with the markings, even the film’s title.

Also incorporated are reenactments of spy plane surveillance footage as voice overs become increasingly frustrated trying to track the terrorist head.

“No birth certificate, no cell phone… The guy’s a ghost,” a voice says.

Another yells, over and over, “When was the last time you saw Bin Laden?”

Starring in the film is Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Scott Adkins, and Chris Pratt of “Parks And Rec.”

Osama was killed on May 2, 2011 during a raid at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan by the U.S. Navy’s elite SEAL Team 6. Though the outcome is public knowledge, how the mission was carried out and accomplished successfully is not as clear. The film promises to shine some light on how it went down.

In order to achieve authenticity, Bigelow and the film’s writer Mark Boal were granted unprecedented access to the CIA planning facility known as The Vault.

According to Wired magazine, Boal worked with a “SEAL Team 6 operator and commander” but was not allowed to reveal his name.

“I’m fascinated by people who dedicate themselves to really difficult and dangerous things for the greater good,” Boal told Inside Movies. “I think they’re heroic and I’m intrigued by them … I personally want to know how they caught bin Laden. All I can do is hope that it interests other people.”